Vision-Based Path Control for Differential-Drive Mobile Robots

This paper proposes a vision-based line following controller for a differential-drive mobile robot. First, a kinematic model of the robot suitable for path following applications is derived. A feedback control, which achieves local asymptotic stability of the nonlinear closed-loop system is designed and analysed. A camera model and the perspective point transformations are given. A line detection algorithm based on Hough transform is used in order to extract the position and orientation of the robot with respect to a detected reference line in the task space. Experiments in vision-based path tracking with differential-drive mobile robot Pioneer3DX have been performed which confirm the validity of the proposed control scheme. Key-Words: Vision-based control, differential-drive wheeled mobile robot, kinematic model, line detection